This invention relates generally to content delivery, and more specifically to delivering viewings of program content to users.
Presently, the traditionally separate telecommunication services, such as phone service, cable service, and data service, are merging together, so that service providers can provide all different types of content through a single medium. For example, service providers are competing to provide end users with content, such as telephone service, video programs, sound recordings, still photographs or pictures, data, etc., through a number of different communication means, such as cable television systems, satellite systems, wireless systems, cellular systems, or Internet connections, which can include the previous listed communication connections, as well as POTS, xDSL, microwave, and any other suitable telecommunication interfaces. Regardless of how the content is delivered to the end user, however, for various different business and sociological reasons, the content provider may want to control access to some of the content, for example, by controlling the number of viewings, downloads or connections to the content.
One area in which controlling access to content is becoming increasingly important is the video programming area. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, the number of times a movie is allowed to be watched in a given time period is controlled by a number of factors, such as studio agreements, royalty rates, and perhaps a subscription level of the user. Thus, it may be desirable to control the number of viewings a user may have to video or movie program content provided through vehicles such as pay per view (PPV), video on demand (VOD), near video on demand (NVOD) and subscription video on demand (SVOD) services.
Similarly, it may be desirable to control the access to online or Internet content, such as music, interactive games, computer programs, etc. Thus, what is needed are systems and methods for controlling access to content regardless of the means or systems used to deliver the content.